Trump in “deciding mode” on Iran: “If and when I blow the entire nation up?” — open to meeting Pezeshkian at the UN

The US president is in “deciding mode” on Iran, he said. “What we will do is three things: obliteration, economic pressure, or we do a deal.”

President Donald Trump said the US could “blow the entire nation up” if it wanted to, referring to Iran, but did not commit to a position, presenting three options: obliteration, economic pressure, or a deal.

“We don’t want to do that. We don’t want that. There’s also economic pressure,” Trump said on 21 September during an interview on “The Sunday Briefing”, a show on Fox News.

“And there’s a deal. But we can do anything we want to do. When I think about ‘if and when I blow the entire nation up’, I say: we’re dealing with them very, very harshly. The sanctions that are being imposed are very harsh. Maybe we don’t have to do anything else. But we may have to do something else, and we’ll see.”

“Very big things are going to happen soon, we’ll see what happens,” he added. “But we’ve been very good to a lot of countries, but nobody has been good to us. Nobody has been good to the US for a long time.”

His comments came two days after he accused Iran of trying to rebuild its nuclear programme. US and Israeli air strikes against Iran in June included attacks on Iranian nuclear sites.

Trump has previously warned of more military action if Iran rebuilds its nuclear programme. The strikes occurred in June, after 12 days of war between Israel and Iran.

The president has repeatedly said that Iran’s nuclear sites were “obliterated”. Iran has said it does not want to acquire nuclear weapons.

In the interview, Trump was asked whether he would meet Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian while both attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week.

“Sure, I’m always open to meeting them,” Trump said. “No one wants war.”

Source: USA Today — https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/09/20/trump-blow-entire-nation-up-iran-threat/91861907007/